Electronic methods of disseminating information have long been no surprise to anyone. Look around – more and more people are using the Internet as a source of information and as the largest entertainment resource that has surpassed television in this regard. Modern Internet providers provide fairly wide communication channels that allow you to watch online video recordings without the need to waste time on pre-reading. This is the reason for such a high popularity of video hosting, virtual platforms that host video files. And the most popular site of this kind is, of course, YouTube. Moreover, some videos are so successful that you involuntarily have a desire to review them several times, saving them in your video library. However, not everyone can download videos from this popular site, so questions from the series how to download videos from YouTube are not uncommon. So let’s try to understand this issue together, and you will understand that everything is quite simple and does not require much effort.
Downloading with browser extensions
The easiest and most user-friendly way is to use extensions and custom scripts that allow you to download YouTube videos as if this function is available on the site by default. There are a huge number of such extensions – for the sake of interest, you can view the extension store for Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox. You will find so many extensions and add-ons on the request "YouTube download" that your eyes just run wide. But often such extensions allow not only downloading videos, but also adding additional, sometimes unnecessary functionality to sites. Therefore, we would like to advise you a few extensions that have already proven themselves and show their best side.
- YouTube Video Download. The script, which has been successfully running on the computers of more than a million users for three years now, allows you to download videos from YouTube completely free of charge and without any difficulties. All the functionality of the script is concentrated in a single button that appears under the video, next to the standard buttons. All that is required of you is to choose the size of the video you need.
- YouTube Downloader. This extension is similar in functionality to the previous one, with the only difference that it is not a script, but is distributed precisely as an extension for Google Chrome. The extension does not offer anything fundamentally new, so the choice between this option and the previous one is purely a matter of taste.
- SaveFrom.Net helper. This extension, distributed for almost all modern browsers, is able to download videos from the most popular video sites. Including YouTube. Moreover, the entire scope of the proposed functions is implemented using just one button, which appears on each of the supported sites. It is worth noting that in addition to the video, you can also download audio recordings.
The list could be continued for a very long time, but these extensions have been successfully functioning for more than a year and have managed to establish themselves as a reliable tool that allows you to easily download videos from YouTube, and, as you have noticed, not only from YouTube. So the question of how to download YouTube videos for free is removed by itself – with browser extensions, this business becomes not just easy. It comes down to pressing a single button. However, you will soon see for yourself the convenience of this method.
Application usage
This method may be suitable if you are not a fan of browser extensions and prefer not to clutter it with a variety of add-ons, being content with standard features. A striking example of such an application is Free YouTube Downloader, the entire functionality of which is the ability to download videos from the site. It works quite simply – you insert a link to the video in a special field, select the path to save, select the video size and start downloading. That’s all, at the end of the download, you will receive a video file in the specified folder. By the way, if you use Download Master, then I have good news for you – this application is able to download media files from website pages, including videos from YouTube.
It’s a completely different case if you’re watching YouTube videos on your mobile phone. It is no secret that unlimited mobile Internet has become very affordable today and more and more people prefer to browse the Internet using mobile devices. YouTube was no exception. Fortunately, there are several applications that are capable of downloading videos from this site. For Symbian and Android it’s YouTube Downloader, and for iOs it’s MXTube. These applications allow you to view videos on your smartphone screen and download them to a folder you specify.
In general, such functions as downloading videos from YouTube are now implemented as additional features of some programs and in the form of extensions. So the use of separate applications solely for downloading videos does not justify itself and only creates confusion in the installed programs. So the use of special applications is justified only on mobile devices, although the final choice is still yours.
Use of Third Party Sites
This method is the use of sites that process the video links received from you and issue download links. In some ways, the work of such sites resembles the functioning of applications for downloading from YouTube. In the same way, you select a video and copy the link to the site. Similarly, you choose the size of the video. And in the same way, you get the downloaded video file as a result. In other words, these sites are a compromise between the first and second options, offering you the opportunity to use online applications to download videos from YouTube. In such cases, there is no need to install extensions and applications. This, of course, cannot but please all fans of maintaining a constant order on the PC. There are a lot of similar sites, but I would like to describe a couple of the most famous ones.
- Savefrom.net, which is already familiar to us from the browser extension. As you already know, it supports a large number of different sites, which makes it a universal tool for downloading video and audio content from the most popular portals and social networks of Runet.
- VideoSaver.ru, a site with similar functionality, but a much smaller list of supported sites. Can serve as an alternative in case of temporary failure of the first.
As you can see, there are a lot of various ways to download videos from YouTube, so you just have to choose the best option, and now not a single interesting video will be lost in the stream of constantly updated pages of the site. After all, now it will be saved in your own video library.